In a discussion about the future of urban planning in practice and education—as the first installment in a loose series of interviews on the topic—Markus Vogl and Martina Baum outline the discipline in transition: moving away from the finished master plan toward open, process-oriented approaches. They view planning as a practice of listening, understanding, and enabling, and see urban planning as an interdisciplinary and social task. In doing so, they emphasize the importance of local forms of knowledge and collective spatial production. In this context, the role of planners is shifting toward that of mediators, translators, and designers of spaces and processes. Teaching thus becomes a testing ground for new forms of design and action. Markus Vogl has been a professor of urban design and spatial planning/urban studies at the University of Art and Design Linz since September 2025; Martina Baum is the director of the Institute of Urban Design at the University of Stuttgart and a professor of urban planning and design.
 

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